Is ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ a battle worth fighting?

After 10 years of box office smashes, memorable characters and plenty of quips, “Avengers: Infinity War” has finally arrived. With the considerable amount of hype, can this entry live up to its massive expectations?

In this film, the Avengers — still split up after the events of “Captain America: Civil War” — must attempt to come back together to stop Thanos from collecting the Infinity Stones and destroying the universe. It’s best to keep the plot synopsis at this for now, as any more could give away crucial information.

What ultimately makes this film work lies in its characters. Both the motivations and interactions amongst the cast are excellent. Much like “Captain America: Civil War,” this film takes advantage of these characters’ pasts and motivations to help make their arcs emotionally resonant. Simultaneously, the film wisely chooses which characters to have interact, making for the trademark Marvel humor to take place.

Speaking of humor, “Avengers: Infinity War” pulls off balancing tones remarkably well, never squandering on the truly hopeless tone the film tries to pull off. As a result, there is a sense of unpredictability in the pacing, never feeling like it has to rush things to set up a sequel.

This sense of dread is mainly thanks to Thanos himself, who makes for an outstanding villain. Every scene with Thanos automatically has a feeling of menace, something hardly, if ever, experienced by any MCU villain. It makes him surprisingly sympathetic, but never too far to make it sappy.

To say this film is filled to the max with plot points and characters would be an understatement. While Marvel has been good at finding a way to balance out so many characters in previous films,  there have also been times when it hasn’t worked, most notably in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

This time around, it’s more of a mixed bag. The first act of the film bounces around from character to character, mainly to help establish what they have been doing in the past few years. While there is an attempt to keep these sequences streamlined, the vast number of these scenes and tones is just too noticeable, becoming overwhelming. Fortunately, as the movie goes on the plots gain more direction and feels more coherent.

This factor does some minor damages to the cast. While all the characters we love are in the film, there are some who are focused on much less in order to prioritize the main story.

There’s not much more to say about “Avengers: Infinity War” without spoiling it. In the end, it properly celebrates the 10 year legacy of this legendary franchise with one of the darkest, most jaw-dropping entries in the MCU yet. This may not be the full-on fan-pleasing venture fans may have expected, but what it gave us is far from disappointing.